Super Mario: Virtual Reality
by TheSafeJug
Summary: A brand-new Mario game is released that places the player inside the game using virtual reality. The people playing the game slowly realize that this is no ordinary Mario adventure. This is the tale of four players as they take on the task of conquering the game.
1. One: Into the New World

Imagine being inside of a video game. Instead of mashing buttons on a controller, the player on your TV screen would not be a different person anymore; you would be jumping through the exciting levels of your favorite video game, defeating enemies, gaining items, and going on grand quests.

I didn't have to imagine doing all that anymore. I was about to jump inside a video game.

Yes, I was in line for the launch party of the brand-new Nintendo VR. The "VR" stood for "virtual reality". All you had to do was strap on a helmet with a game disc loaded inside of the device, power it on, and your mind would venture into the game. The $450 console was highly hyped by gamers everywhere after the atrocious sales of Nintendo's last console attempt: the Super Wii. It had horrible games, an awful design, and an awkward controller resulting in games being virtually impossible to perfect. I didn't purchase it after I read many reviews online giving it scores like three out of ten and one star. But Nintendo promised that this time, it would be different. The VR had highly impressive graphics, immensely realistic to make it feel like you were truly there while playing. Additionally, the game that was bundled with the brand new system – Super Mario Bros. VR – was a revolutionary game starring the all-star plumber that enabled the player to play as four different characters from the series and explore larger-than-life levels. It looked amazing, and it seems to fully utilize the VR's abilities.

But before I could play the game, I had to stand in line for it.

I was freezing. It was a cold, November night, and every time I exhaled I could clearly see my breath. My watch informed me that it was 11:45; fifteen minutes before launch. I was pretty far ahead in line, due to arriving three days prior to the day that the VR arrived. My dad agreed to take me because he shares my love of Nintendo products. We hopped in the car and sped towards the local video game shop, prepared to take home a second reality.

And now, it was almost time.

"This is a surreal feeling," my dad remarked, sitting in our cozy tent that we had set up the moment we arrived.

"It's finally here."

The clock on the side of the store struck 11:55. Of course, I was mainly excited to gain a new video game console, but partially, I was ready to end the dozens of hours I'd spent sitting in a tent. I'd used that time to prepare for Super Mario Bros. VR, playing through some retro Mario titles for the Gameboy and DS. I grew up with those games, and now, at seventeen, I was going to live inside them.

The clock struck 11:59.

I give a glance to my dad, who gave me a smile.

All around me, people in line shouted a glorious countdown that I gladly joined in.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

"VR!" The entire crowd screamed in unison. At that precise moment, the doors of the shop slammed open, and out walked a man with a loudspeaker in hand. He gave a quick wave to the crowd before yelling, "The Nintendo VR is now available!"

In my palm was the handle to a bag. Inside that bag was the Nintendo VR. On my face was the dopiest smile possible. I was actually holding one of these things. Incredible.

Once I arrived at home, I gave my mom and sister a hug, as they'd been waiting days to see us. After this exchange, I carefully placed the VR on the kitchen table, trying as hard as I could not to rip the box to shreds so I could start playing. I slid out the contents from the bag.

There it was.

A sleek, gray box, with the letters "VR" in huge, bold font on the front. Under this text was a picture of the black helmet that would soon be placed on my head to transport me into another dimension.

My instincts then took over. I snatched a stray pair of scissors from the table, brought them over to the VR, and violently impaled the side of the package. The safety scissors managed to slice through the box and enable me to successfully open the console up.  
Inside, it was simple. There, in a thin, plastic wrapping, was the helmet. Next to it was a long manual on how to use the device, along with the small disc that would be inserted into a slot in the helmet to let me play Super Mario Bros. VR.

Things looked pretty good.

The helmet was atop my head, covering my eyes. There was a small red button on the top that powered the system on.

"Are you ready?" My dad asked. I flashed him a thumbs up, and on queue, he pressed his index finger into the button.

Instantly, I felt a little odd. My vision completely faded away, along with the sounds of my house. This continued for a couple seconds.

"Hello?!" I frantically called out into the darkness. There was no reply.

But then, to my relief, everything started to fade back. However, it was different. I was standing in the midst of a green field that seemed to go on for miles. I looked down, and to my shock, I certainly didn't see me. Instead, I saw bare legs and bare feet that did not belong to me.

"Hello. Welcome to Nintendo VR."

These words echoed into my head. I was officially inside, then. But I probably should've read that manual, as I had no clue how to access Super Mario Bros. VR, or how to get to a menu.

"I am the VR Helper, here to aid you on your adventure. First, please set up some basic settings before you begin playing," the voice explained.

Suddenly, a wall formulated itself in front of me out of midair. I stepped back in surprise, before realizing that this was not the world I normally resided in. This was all virtual, and anything could happen.

The wall turned out to not truly be a wall at all. Instead, what was in front of me was a mirror. Now, I was truly able to see what I looked like here.

My reflection was quite bizarre. I looked like a middle-aged man, but there was no face or hair on my head.

"Please distinguish your gender. Are you a boy or are you a girl?" The emotionless voice asked.

In a split second, two words carved themselves into the side of the mirror: "Boy" and "Girl".

"How do I choose?" I asked. But, like my body, this voice didn't sound like me. Instead, it sounded like a robot.

"Please press your hand against the option you want," the robot responded.

I nodded, even though this robot definitely couldn't see me. I decided to see the two models for male and female. First, I tapped "boy", and some changes started taking place. Black dress shoes, gray pants, and a red shirt appeared on my body. Also, a face formed on my head, which felt extremely weird. It looked like an average man, with a beard surrounding the mouth. I decided against choosing the "girl" option to avoid swapping my gender.

"Are you sure you are a boy?"

"Yes," I answered, in the deep, manly tone.

"Okay. Next, please input your username."

The mirror stayed put, but the "boy" and "girl" options vanished. In their place, a keypad appeared with all the letters of the alphabet placed on it.

I raised my fingers – well, they weren't really mine – to the keypad and swiped them across it, formulating the name "Adrian". This was my name in reality, and I figured I would just use it here to save myself from confusion.

"Is your name Adrian?" The robot asked me, for clarification.

"Yes."

"Okay. That is all you need to begin playing. For more customization options, please consult the 'Settings' option in the main menu," the voice informed me.

"Sounds great," I replied.

"Goodbye."

The mirror faded away, along with the plain, grassy field. In fact, everything faded. The only things I could see now were "Play Game", "Add Friends", "Nintendo VR Community", and "Settings".

At first I wasn't sure what to do, as I had no controller to select any of these options. But an idea flashed in my brain.

"Play game," I uttered.


	2. Two: The Assistant Toad

To my surprise, a green light surrounded the "Play Game" option, and the selection screen was replaced with another, more colorful screen.

It had worked. All you had to do was use your voice to select. I had figured that this would be the way to use the VR when in menus, due to the simple fact that you had no button to press to select an option. The Super Wii already was using voice commands as well, which meant that Nintendo was familiar with the concept.

I pushed all that to the side, because when I saw the huge title screen before me, the previous events were momentarily forgotten.

"Super Mario Bros. VR…" I whispered, still in the voice of the man.

The screen prompted to me to say "Begin", and so I did what it told me. A short, humorous cutscene of Bowser, the main antagonist of the game, turning inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom called Toads into stone played, and before I knew it, my eyes were met with a character select screen.

Four different playable characters were standing in a line before me. Text appeared above each of their heads. The first one in line was the hero himself, Mario. He was a small man with a plump body. He almost resembled Santa Claus, except his clothing was different. Mario wore blue overalls and a red shirt. He also wore his signature red cap that had the letter "M" on the front. Next to the hero was his brother, Luigi. This other plumber was much taller and less chubby, but he had a bewildered expression on his face, and looked a lot less heroic than his older brother. Apart from the brothers, you had Toad, a tiny, human-like creature with a mushroom on the top of his head, and the princess, a beautiful woman wearing a pink dress.

I decided to go with Mario. All the characters had their special abilities, but Mario was the most well-rounded of the bunch, and seemed to be a great starting character for me.

"Mario," I chose.

Red light shined around Mario, and he jumped in the air to indicate my decision. With that, the character select screen slowly morphed into huge text: "World 1-1"

* * *

My vision returned to me mere seconds later. The first thing I noticed was that I heard upbeat music playing in my head. After that, I analyzed my surroundings.

I saw that the entire land before me was covered in grass. There were many hills that covered the land as well, but the most notable feature of the land was the blocks hovering in the air. Some looked like ordinary bricks, but a couple of them had question marks in the center of them.

I knew from experience that this meant that they either held a power-up or a coin. Power-ups ranged from mushrooms, which would enable the player to grow in size and take an extra hit from enemies, to fire flowers, which enabled the player to shoot fireballs.

I was ready for this.

As soon as I started running, I noticed something was off. I ran pretty slowly. It was like I was carrying a ton of extra weight.

Then it occurred to me.

I looked down. It was just as expected. I saw blue overalls and a big, fat stomach.

I was Mario.

Although it was a little concerning that I looked like a fat plumber, I continued to "run".

This was when I came in contact with my first set of blocks. There were three blocks above me: two brick, one a question mark block. I was confused as to how I would go about hitting the blocks and making their contents pop out. In the regular games, all you'd have to do was press the "A" button and you automatically smashed the block, forcing the insides out. But here… I wasn't sure what to do.

Before I could think harder about the situation, I began to hear a noise getting closer and closer. It was rustling grass, and I was sure I knew who was making the noise.

Whipping around, I came face to face with a disgusting creature that was waddling ever closer towards me. Its eyes pierced into my soul, and its teeth appeared sharp as knives.

Then I realized that it was simply a Goomba.

"Who knew they'd be so creepy in real life?" I asked myself, aloud. Annoyingly, playing as Mario also came with his Italian accent. Whenever I spoke, even though I wasn't trying, a fluent Italian accent went along with my words.

I backed away a little bit, knowing what to do. It was dangerously close to me now, and since I had no power-up, one hit would be the end of me.

All I had to do was jump.

With courage, I bent my legs and bounced into the air. Surprisingly, I flew far above the ground, much farther than any human being could possibly travel by simply jumping.

I guess there's a reason Mario's name used to be "Jumpman".

In the air, I positioned my boots to land directly on the Goomba, and it worked. With force, I came hurdling back down on the ground, piercing through the air and smashing onto the Goomba's head. Luckily, the death animation for the creature was not gory; it just exploded into dust without any blood. I was thankful that this decision was made.

Now that I had vanquished the Goomba, I had to figure out how to smash the block again. I tried simply jumping into the block, but it didn't budge when my head hit the block. It just hurt my head a little.

I was about to shrug off the block and continue onward when I heard more grass rustling behind me.

"Hey! Hello, sorry I'm late!"

It was an extremely squeaky voice that made my ears ring. Definitely not another Goomba, or any other enemy for that matter.

No… it sounded like a Toad.

I slowly turned my head behind me to see that I was correct. There stood a little Toad frantically waving his arms at me.

"I am your personal assistant, Mario! The name's Helpy!"

"What a creative name," I mumbled.

"Now, Mario… I see you're stuck with that block! I'll tell you how to do it! All you gotta do is hit the block with your fist!" Helpy explained.

My fist.

It was a little dumb of me to not think of this simple solution to opening the block before I had to get help from an irritating Toad.  
I nodded and turned around to face the bricks. Eyeing the question mark, I bent my knees and jumped again, this time raising my fist in the air to slam into the block.

It worked.

My fist made contact, and instantly, a mushroom resembling the one on Helpy's head rocketed out of the top of the block onto the grass. It didn't stay put on the ground, however; it started to slide away. I needed to grab it before it got too far from me, so I dashed towards the item. The second I touched it with my boot, it vanished, and I heard a familiar power-up sound.

Suddenly, the world started shrinking before me. Helpy got smaller, along with all the enemies. The blocks were now not so high up, and I felt that I could easily reach them.

I had grown.

"Congratulations, Mario! You got a mushroom! This means you can get hit and still not lose a life! You only shrink down to your normal size!" Helpy yelled.

This was not news to me. I'd retrieved mushrooms in plenty of Mario games. But feeling the power of the item was a brand new experience. I felt full of strength and power, confident that I could slay anything that got in my way. Everything was helpless before my amazing might.

"Do you want to share this on the VR Community?" Helpy asked.

Share on the VR Community?

"What's the 'VR Community'... and what am I sharing?" I pondered, gazing back at the Toad.

"Oh! It is an online network where you can share screenshots, pictures, videos, and write comments about your adventures in the game you're playing! And, if you want, you can invite other players into the game with you!"

"Awesome," I responded, a smile on my face. This feature was similar to the likes of Miiverse for the Wii U. I had fond memories of making friends on the service, drawing comic strips about the games I was playing and taking pictures of some amazing glitch or new item that I'd discovered. I was glad that it was back and better than ever, with the Super Wii lacking a Miiverse-esque feature.

"And, as for what you would be sharing, you would share the fact that you got your first mushroom!"

Sharing the fact that I got my first mushroom would probably make me the entire community's laughing stock. Getting a mushroom isn't exactly worth excitedly telling millions of other people, and I'd probably be accused of being a "n00b" if I did so.

"No thanks. But... I am interested in the thing about inviting people into your game..." I stated.

"It's easy! Just go on the community, find the button at the top right corner of the screen that says "Find Players", and voila! You have a list of everyone looking to enter a game! Once you beat the first world, you can join other people's games, but for now, you can only invite others inside yours," Helpy explained.

"I think I might do that... how do I enter the community?"

"Just say 'Enter the VR Community'!"

I nodded vigorously. I could use some company in the vast land I was now residing in, and Helpy wasn't cutting it. He was a great AI, but I was looking for an actual person to accompany me.

So, I spoke the words to enter the community.

In a flash, the entire world around me faded to a light, yellow color. The hills and blocks, along with Helpy, also disappeared, leaving a boring flatland. In front of my face was a screen that read "Welcome to the VR Community!". Two options below it read "Proceed" and "Exit".

"Proceed," I shouted. I noticed that my voice in the community had changed from the voice of the Italian plumber to the manly voice of my avatar outside of the game. Once I uttered the word, the screen was replaced with a long list of posts made my users about Super Mario Bros. VR. There were a variety of options above this list. I could write a post, take a screenshot, take a video, or draw a picture. I refrained from selecting any of these just yet, as my main objective still remained; I was to find a player.

I didn't locate the button that read "Find Players", because I already knew that if I spoke the words I would be redirected there. Shouting the words, the screen changed from comments of players to a list of players and the character they were playing as. This was a handy feature, as I didn't want to invite another person playing as Mario into my game. It would be better to have some variety, so I searched for other players. It would've been helpful if Nintendo had added a filter so anyone could find a player they wanted with ease, but I shrugged that thought off.

After a period of searching for the right player, I decided on inviting a player named "Kyl389" who was playing as Luigi. It would be nice to have the two Mario brothers playing together in one world, and since he could jump inside other people's worlds, he'd already finished off the level I was playing in, so he could provide some helpful tips.

"Invite Kyl389," I declared. A text window popped up on the screen, announcing that I had successfully invited Kyl389 to play inside the game with me.

I was done with the VR Community, so I decided to say "Exit the VR Community", as it would be the logical voice command to input. If the way to enter was to say "enter", the way to exit would be to say "exit".

It worked. The yellow screen exploded into small pixels, making an effect similar to a firework. The hills and blocks gradually began to form, and Helpy's body, piece by piece, returned as well.

"How'd it go? Did you find a player?" The enthusiastic Toad asked.

"Yes, I did. So will he be sent the invitation?"

"He will!

"Sounds good... while I wait, I will continue playing through–"

"'Sup?"

I was shocked to see that a tall, green Italian man with overalls and a green cap was standing firmly in front of me.


End file.
